Scaffolding accidents

In 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) reported that 88 fatalities occurred in the year 2007 from scaffolds and staging. In a Bureau of Labor and Statistics study, 72 percent of workers injured in scaffold accidents attributed the accident either to the planking or support giving... 

Getting to and from a scaffold working surface is a critical event for your employees. This is the time most scaffold accidents happen. The previous scaffold standard only required that an access ladder or equivalent safe access be provided. ... 

Getting to the work level of a scaffold has always been a serious problem. This is the time most scaffold accidents occur. 

Getting to the work level of a scaffold has always been a serious problem. This is the time most scaffold accidents happen. If you re not provided with a proper stairway or ladder, might be tempted to use crossbraces to climb the scaffold. This is strictly forbidden in the scaffold standard. 

Incidents like these and many more could be prevented by fitting a numbered tag to the joint or valve and putting that number on the work permit. In incident (c), the foreman would have had to go up onto the scaffold to fix the tag. Accidents have occun ed, however, despite tagging systems. 

The accident happened when the plant had to replace one of six reactors and rushed to refit the plant to bypass the disabled reactor. Scaffolding was jerry-rigged to support a 20-in. pipe connecting reactor four with reactor six, which violated industry and the manufacturer s recommendations. The reactor that failed showed stress crack corrosion. The only drawings for the repair were in chalk on the machine shop floor. Both ends of the 20-in. 

One of my clearest memories from my time as a site manager was of an accident. Someone had chosen to jump over some stacked materials to take a shortcut, rather than using the clear walking route that went around them, landed badly and hurt his ankle. But despite the circumstances, and the fact that I knew I couldn t have done more myself to prevent this happening, as I helped him off the site to a seat in the canteen the call came loud and clear from the scaffolding above ... 

The failure of non-structural elements such as block walls, stairs and scaffolding could have consequences for SSCs. External hazards (such as earthquakes, high winds, explosions or impacts of aircraft) could be the cause of such a failure and they are usually evaluated on the basis of Ref [5]. However, there may be situations in which the failure of non-structural elements may be caused by internal initiating events such as operator error or accidents during maintenance. The consequences for SSCs should be evaluated in these cases. Care should be taken either to avoid such failures or to minimize the potential damage to SSCs by means of proper location and adequate barrier design. 

Have your competent person go over their inspection checklist as your employees who use scaffolds observe. This will the need to constantly be alert for things that just don t look right. This preventive maintenance could discover a problem before it turns into an accident. 

Before each work shift, and after any incident which could affect a scaffold s structural integrity, your company competent person must inspect all scaffolds and scaffold components for visible defects. According to OSHA this should adequately protect employees working on scaffolds and ensure that defects are detected before an accident happens. 

Blaming falls on worker carelessness or accident is commonly used to sidestep important safety precautions. Although falls are sometimes caused by inattention or carelessness, other factors are also at work. Materials that affect footing, misplaced equipment, and improperly managed and assembled scaffolding are all contributors to the possibility of injury from falls. Safe work practices and worker awareness of workplace hazards can go far in alleviating these hazards. 

Information should be gathered from all available sources, for example, witnesses, supervisors, physical conditions, hazard data sheets, written systems of work, training records etc. The amount of time spent should not, however, be disproportionate to the risk. The aim of the investigation should be to explore the situation for possible underlying factors, in addition to the immediately obvious causes of the accident. For example, in an accident involving a faulty scaffold it would not be sufficierrt to conclude that an accident occurred because the scaffold was incorrectly asembled. It is necessary to look into the possible underlying system failure that may have occurred which allowed the scaffold to be sub-standard. 

Injuries sustained in falling occur on a scale to merit widespread concern UK statistics for all such accidents—at work or elsewhere— indicate that falls in 1979 produced more than heilf a million serious injuries and nearly 6000 fatalities. Within the manufacturing industries that year there were 38 321 falls which caused an absence from work of more than three days and 30 fatalities. It is falls from a height (from ladders, stairs, scaffolding, etc., or from one level to another) which most commonly cause death, and these are atypical of the majority of falling accidents in the rubber industry. Indeed, within this industry fatal accidents from any cause are thankfully rare. ... 

Some physical hazards cannot be eliminated because of the nature of the confined space or the work to be performed. These hazards include such items as scaffolding, surface residues, and structural hazards. The use of scaffolding in confined spaces has contributed to many accidents caused by workers or materials falling, improper use of guardrails, and lack of maintenance to insure worker safety. The choice of material used for scaffolding depends upon the type of work to be performed, the calculated weight to be supported, the surface on which the scaffolding is placed, and the substance previously stored in the confined space. 

If proper supervision had been provided on site before this accident, and the scaffold platform had been inspected prior to use, then this accident could easily have been prevented. ... 

Here there is a need for managers to ask themselves this question what is the very worst possible type of incident or event that could arise in the business activity For most types of organisation this could be a major escalating fire, but other types of major incident should be considered, such as an explosion, collapse of a scaffold, flood or serious vehicular traffic accident. The need for some form of emergency plan should be considered. See also Chapter 4 -Safety Management Systems. 

L Ladders. Ladders, steps, scaffolding and other means of access are widely used in industry and commerce. Working from ladders and temporary scaffolding accounts for some 10 per cent of industrial and construction accidents, many of them fatal. Poor equipment, badly maintained, erected and used by untrained personnel, with insufficient supervision, are the main causes of falls. 

Scaffold towers are available commercially in forms comparatively easy to construct. They may also be erected from traditional steel tubing and couplers. In either form, competent and trained personnel are required to ensure that all necessary components are present and in the right place. Many accidents have occurred because of poor erection standards a further common cause is overturning. 

Mobile scaffold towers should never be moved while people are still on the platform. This is a significant cause of accidents. 

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